How Raegan Moya-Jones built Aden + Anais from a kitchen table to $100M

Executive overview

Raegan Moya-Jones noticed that muslin swaddle blankets — ubiquitous in Australia — didn't exist in the US market. She built Aden + Anais while holding a full-time job and raising three children, working from 8:30pm until 3:30am most nights.

The company grew from a $15,000 inventory bet to over $100M in revenue. A co-founder breakup, a recession, and eventually being fired by her own investors marked the journey.

Founders who sell controlling interest to private equity risk losing the company they built — no matter what investors promise during the courtship.

From idea to launch

• Muslin swaddle blankets were standard in Australia but absent from US stores entirely
• The blanket's versatility — burp cloth, nursing cover, crib sheet, stroller cover — made it an obvious product-market fit
• Co-founder Claudia was a personal friend; the company was named after both their children
• Manufacturing partner found at the last booth of a textile trade show; became the supplier for 10 years
• Freelance designers used for initial patterns; Raegan had strong aesthetic opinions but no drawing ability
• First inventory: $15,000 each, four SKU packs; launched by walking product door-to-door to baby stores

Juggling a day job

• Stayed at The Economist until hitting $1M revenue — a milestone she set based on the statistic that only 2% of women-owned businesses reach it
• Kept the side business secret from colleagues; never missed her sales budget
• Worked on Aden + Anais every night after her daughters went to bed, typically until 3:30am
• Her boss told her she didn't have "an entrepreneurial bone in her body" — that boss later worked at Crains, which awarded Aden + Anais as one of NYC's fastest-growing companies

The co-founder breakup

• Claudia's family had provided $350,000 in loans; her husband grew uncomfortable as the majority funder
• Claudia gave a 30-day ultimatum: buy her out or dissolve the company
• Raegan raised ~$500,000 from three friends to buy out Claudia's 49% stake
• Claudia never spoke to Raegan again; Raegan still refers to herself as co-founder and kept the company name
• Marcos (Raegan's husband) kept her going: "Do you believe in the business? Then fight for it."

Growth and the royal effect

• Target called within the first year and took all six SKUs, rolling out nationwide from day one
• Celebrity adoption began one week after launch — Adam Sandler photographed with an Aden + Anais blanket in Us Weekly
• In 2013, Prince George left hospital wrapped in a Jungle Jam pack (a design that had been on sale for eight years); the company website crashed twice
• Took first private equity investment in 2010 to fund inventory and headcount — the team had been cutting orders in half due to cash constraints
• SwanderPace Capital entered as majority shareholders in 2013; Raegan cashed out and bought back in as a major minority shareholder

Being fired from her own company

• In 2018, investors and Raegan diverged on strategy; because they held controlling interest, they fired her
• Her verdict: selling the controlling interest was the single worst decision of her life
• Spent about a year depressed — gained weight, drank too much, lost her identity
• Recovery came only after letting go of the anger, not while holding onto it
• Started St. Luna Spirits (charcoal-filtered rye moonshine) and returned to door-to-door hustle — this time at bars and restaurants

Lessons on money, control, and ambition

• Selling parts of a business is fine; selling the controlling interest is not, regardless of what investors say during the deal
• Financial security doesn't offset the emotional cost of having something you built taken from you
• Idle time was toxic for Raegan — finding a new focus was part of the healing, not a distraction from it
• Ambition cannot be killed, only confidence — and confidence recovers